2018 Education Technology and Language Learning Seminar Report

 

Introduction

          With strong support from the XMedia Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the US–China Youth Education Solutions (YES) Foundation, Doris Sommer, professor of literature at the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Perry Gao, co-founder of the XMedia Lab, hosted the 2018 Education Technology and Language Learning Seminar on November 19 at the Harvard University Faculty Club.

          The seminar invited the world-renowned scholars and experienced industry professionals from both the US and China to present on topics related to education, technology, and language learning. In addition to presentations, some speakers also participated in a panel discussion on the effectiveness of using technology to optimize learning.

Integrating Technology in Early Childhood Education by Dr. John Hopcroft

          Dr. John Hopcroft is the IBM professor of engineering and applied mathematics in computer science at Cornell University, as well as a recipient of the Turing Award. He presented on the topic of “integrating technology in early childhood education.” Drawing upon his working experience in China, Dr. Hopcroft pointed out that in order to improve education in both the US and China, it is critical to provide quality education for children in their early childhood so that they can acquire the capacity to handle the learning required for all aspects of success in their future life.

          Dr. Hopcroft brought up the following main points in his presentation:

• Dr. Hopcroft pointed out that there have been major advances in two areas of research. One is how the brain develops, and the other is the value of ‘early’ – the environment in the first two years of a child’s life basically determines how well that child is going to do in the future.

• Drawing upon discoveries from brain science, Dr. Hopcroft emphasized the significance of a stable environment and good nutrition in early childhood in shaping a child. The studies show that when a child is born, the neurons are already present, but the wiring is highly fluid. With a favorable growing environment, studies have found that individuals have fewer mental problems, commit fewer crimes, and earn more money.

• Lastly, Dr. Hopcroft pointed out the significance of disseminating this message to the general public so that counties and cities across America can provide sufficient funds for early childhood education.

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Technology for Learning by Professor Joe Blatt

          Following Dr. Hopcroft, Professor Joe Blatt, director of the Technology in Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, shared his success story of using technology to impact learning, with a particular emphasis on early childhood education and learning outside the formal school system. The following is a summary of his main arguments:

          The title of his presentation borrows from Dr. Eugene Wigner, who once wrote a paper called "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences." Dr. Wigner explains a phenomenon whereby every time something new about nature is discovered, it can be described and is often better understood using mathematics. Likewise, Professor Blatt argues that whenever we come to understand a basic principle of learning, technology is uniquely and admirably well-suited to support that basic principle.

• The first principle of learning is a one-on-one tutorial relationship. One creative way of using technology to support this principle in education is to restore the "instructional core" in education, which refers to a teacher and a student together in the presence of content. Professor Blatt shows how a Harvard professor who once taught a class of over 1000 students can now use technology to reach literally millions of students through high-tech connections while making every student feel like the professor is talking directly to him or her.

• The second principle is that learners learn best when they feel most directly connected to the material and that the material is related to their real life. Video games are a case in point. Professor Blatt showed the audience how video games and mobile apps can help learners – as young as 2 years old – feel that learning is personalized and relevant to real life, thus causing real learning to take place.

• The third principle is the notion that learning is social and that the best learning happens in collaboration with other people. Professor Blatt showed a video of a project promoted by the Harvard Education School. In this project on environmental science and ecology, students went to a pond to collect various data and, through a network, they shared their information and collectively came up with a diagnosis of the problem in the pond. Therefore, technology enabled these kids to conduct real science collaboratively, albeit in a simulated environment.

• The fourth principle of learning is that learning is not just cognitive –people learn with their emotions as well as their brains. One important application of technology is using robots to teach language. As Professor Bratt points out, many kids try to learn a second language in a household where no one else speaks that language. A robot can run through dialogues with them so that they feel like they are actually speaking with someone. Professor Blatt believes that the development of robotics is particularly motivating for language learning, which must engage the emotions as well as the brain.

• The fifth principle of learning is to encourage the pursuit of breadth of knowledge. Professor Blatt observed that educators often encourage learners to go deeper but think less in a positive way in terms of breadth. He coined the term “sparkability” to communicate the idea of going broader: “A really good presentation of content not only invites one to go deeper into that particular project but sparks one’s interest in related topics, which together make one’s knowledge and learning more successful and more fruitful.” Social media and social networking can enable this kind of breadth and deep ideas if used properly.

• The last principle is that learning can happen anywhere at any age. Professor Blatt used his work for Sesame Workshop to illustrate how very young children can stay at home and learn executive functions such as following directions, waiting for the next step, and repeating directions through TV programs and video games.

          By highlighting these six important principles of learning, Professor Blatt demonstrated that technology is “uniquely unreasonably effective, because it aligns so well with these basic principles of learning.”

Studio Learning: Pedagogy for Addressing Open-Ended Challenges by Dr. Fawwa Habbal

          In his presentation, Dr. Fawwa Habbal, executive dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, challenged the traditional methods of gaining knowledge. He argues that “humanity is facing many critical challenges, most of which are open-ended, complex systems and require broad input and experiences to address.” Therefore, we need new content and new pedagogies to bridge the gaps between traditional academic fields and real-world challenges. Dr. Habbal expanded on his idea in the following aspects:

• Dr. Habbal presented on the urgent need in today’s world to think about systems, which are not one single domain but rather several domains interacting with one another.

• Dr. Habbal pointed out that when we think in terms of system, we are faced with challenges such as the emergence of unexpected factors, multiscale situations, multiple constraints, and the different futures different people foresee.

• In order to resolve and mitigate these challenges, Dr. Habbal argued that we need to have new content and new pedagogies: what should we teach today, and how should we teach it?

• Dr. Habbal proposed that, like the learning style of AI or machines, today people also need to learn through multiple domains, multiple disciplines, and with a group of people working together. He elaborated on this idea by borrowing from the practices of the art studio environment, which focuses on the reinforcement of the learning through critique and development, putting learners in the position of an agent and the teacher in the position of a critic who points students in the direction of the best solution rather than bringing domain knowledge and content.

Face to Face by Dr. Doris Sommer

          Dr. Doris Sommer, professor of literature at the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, particularly stressed the significance of the social aspect of education by adding notions from the humanities to the current education system to take full advantage of technology. She asks, “How do we go public? How can we turn what we do into not only understandable messages but also attractive messages, compelling messages? What can we learn from art to make compelling and persuasive cases of knowledge?” In answering these questions, Dr. Sommer presented the following points:

• Art is about change and adjustment, and art helps one develop a sense of judgment. Kant says that it is only through aesthetics that one trains that sense of judgment, and this judgment is needed in almost all fields and areas today.

• Like Dr. Habbal, Dr. Doris also proposed that we should learn from the humanities in the 15^th and 16^th centuries to reconnect knowledge to the real world. She introduced the concept of “cultural agents,” who know how to change the world through art.

• Dr. Doris introduced the Pre-text Program to further illustrate her point. Invented by Dr. Doris, Pre-text is “a simple pedagogical protocol that trains trainers to ignite active reading. Students will tackle challenging texts the way good artists and intellectuals do: irreverently.” Pre-texts use popular art as a vehicle to interpret any text so that students can have fun with difficult material. Therefore, “high-order literacy, innovation, and citizenship go hand-in-hand as Pre-texts invite one to play with written work and then to reflect on what was done.

• The rationale behind Pre-texts, Dr. Sommer believes, is that today everything is connected with everything, so, deriving inspiration from traditional Chinese medicine, Pre-texts allow us to achieve both academic and social development through acupuncture prompts. Learners can propose an activity that they want to do in association with the assigned text, and that is when technology comes into play. When collaboration happens, the real learning happens. The teacher is no longer the imposer; the text is. Students become agents of their own learning, and they teach each other, constituting the essence of peer-to-peer teaching. The teacher is a facilitator in the room and no longer an expert. Furthermore, during the process, the pleasure of learning is regained.

          Both Dr. Fawwaz Habbal and Dr. Doris Sommer emphasized the element of the humanities in using technology in teaching and learning. Dr. Habbal, borrowing from the practices of the art studio environment, introduced the idea of the “critic” in the classroom, which puts the student in the position of an agent and the teacher in the position of a critic who points students in the direction of the best solution. In a similar vein, Dr. Sommer introduced the concept of Pre-text, which uses popular art as a vehicle to interpret a text so that students can have fun with difficult material. In so doing, educators improvise using available resources and refine technology tools without losing the sociability that supports human creativity.

Cross-Cultural Research on Language Education in both the US and China by Frank Tang

          The last presenter, Dr. Frank Tang, research professor at New York University, encouraged us to adopt a holistic approach to education and bring imagination and passion back to the process of learning. Dr. Tang reminds us that the real center of education in this increasingly globalized world is no other than intercultural communicative competency.

• Dr. Tang began his presentation with a story of a little girl who loved to create stories before she went to school and whose grandmother always faithfully read her stories. But after she went to school and obtained a formal education, she gradually lost her passion and ability to make up stories. The reason, as Dr. Tang points out, is that there were no passionate and encouraging readers at school.

• Dr. Tang continued to remind us that in order for effective learning to happen, we need to create an environment in which learners have the opportunity to learn on their own at their own pace incorporating their own interests without being criticized or evaluated but rather appreciated, like the role the grandmother played for the girl.

• Dr. Tang reviewed the developments in linguistic theories as well as national policies and observed that, increasingly, language learning is not merely about language per se. The new “5 Cs” standards are not just focused on language: They stand for communication, culture, connection, comparison, and community. The core of this model is “I,” which stands for intercultural communication competence.

• What are the current trends in language learning and teaching? One is to educate the whole child, which emphasizes the five basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing. Viewing goes hand in hand with arts, visual literacy, and technology. The other is to integrate IT into teaching and learning.

• Like Dr. Habbal and Dr. Sommer, Dr. Tang also urged us to pick up humanistic traditions. He proposed that we need to first humanize teachers and secondly are to educate the whole child. The first principle is that students will learn best when they want to learn. He also emphasized that learning is not just about cognitive learning but also emotional learning.

Panel Discussion

          The seminar concluded with a panel discussion on the effectiveness of using technology to optimize learning, and the participants included Dr. Vicki Chandler, chief academic officer and dean of faculty of Minerva School at Keck Graduate Institute; Yonghe Zheng, professor at Beijing Normal University; Changshuan Li, executive dean and professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University; Perry Gao, co-founder of the XMedia Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; and Arvid Nagel, researcher at the University of Teacher Education St. Gallen. Panelists demonstrated the different ways in which educators can adopt simulations and virtual classrooms to foster deep learning and interaction, illustrated the effectiveness of online one-on-one language teaching with the GogoKid program, and raised the question of what can be defined as good education in today’s world.

          In summary, three significant themes emerged from these presentations and panel discussion. First, in contrast to the many negative views on the effects of technology on children today, using technology properly in early childhood education is beneficial. There are numerous case studies and research studies that have demonstrated that technology can help children learn and process new knowledge and language more effectively than traditional means. Second, technology in education should help foster sociability to support human initiatives and creativity. Many presenters urged contemporary educators to diligently explore the ways in which technology can be used to restore human agency and inspire “useful and usable knowledge.” Third and most significantly, education is not only about cognitive learning but also emotional learning. Therefore, a humanistic and holistic approach to education is required to humanize teaching and educate the whole person in this increasingly globalized and homogenized world.

          The seminar has indeed produced a “deep and beautiful weave” of the cutting-edge ideas and resources of technology, language, and education, as Dr. Sommer predicted in her opening remarks. Scholars and researchers from different fields and disciplines took this opportunity to share their experiences making use of technology to develop and expand human capacities for learning and growing. There were success stories, case studies, and proposals for future projects, all of which can work together to weave a beautiful future in which teaching and learning are reformed by technology and human agency and human sociability are no longer harmed but rather greatly enhanced through the creative use of technology.